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Flash player in internet browser

Question

I've recently purchased an LG Smart TV and I'm loving it and webOS in general.

One question I have though is that when using the internet browser, many sites do not recognize the browser user agent for the smart TV so you end up seeing errors like "You need flash player", etc. Is there any possibility, inside the web browser to force a user agent string change (to something like iPad for example) so that these tablet/mobile friendly sites are also able to load well and play content within the TVs in built browser without asking for adobe's flash?

I would be happy to help having something like this implemented as I'm sure many TV users will love this now that all of the most popular TV stations have catch up and on demand content on their websites.

38 answers to this question

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Great suggestion! I want that too, the tablet versions of sites would look great on the screen, especially if they use the retina artwork for the sites on my lovely new 4K TV that I have yet to get over.

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In the meantime, i've asked a similar question on LG developer forum and someone replied that they have no plans to include flash in the browser - fair enough and I agree. It would be great though if they or somebody else can provide a way for the webos internet browser to be able to have the browser agent changed so at least, sites that already replace flash content on ipads, would do the same on the TV. Does anybody maybe have a suggestion on how something like this could be implemented? I've even tried to look for websites that allow you to change user agent on the fly but none of the ones I tested had good results...

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Lg WebOS hasn't got Flash because i have talked with LG and they say that ADOBE doesn't want to provide them Flash, then i asked why Netcast has flash, they sayed that in that moment ADOBE provided them and as you can see netcast has flash 10 and can't be updated, and the actual version is Flash 15, they sayed that if i talk personaly to adobe, they could help me, so if we all send a mail to adobe, may be they can provide flash on behalf of clients, so friends, one email can change the way of your TV, so please help me and also send emails to adobe. Hope it helped, 1 like also helps me.

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It looks like many people are asking for this. To be honest, maybe flash is not the best option in such case and as some of you guys mentioned, it would require input from Adobe and it might get a bit complicated for LG to implement. What I was originally asking for though, is for some tool that would at least allow LG WebOS TV owners to switch the browser's User Agent string to something like an iPad for example. Nowadays, many websites (and most importantly, websites streaming video content) have implemented fallbacks if flash is not available however, the webos tv browser user agent seems to be not so popular and it lacks behind. I really love my TV but sometimes, I feel a bit disappointed with certain small things as I know the TV is easily capable to do much more but it's limited in certain situations like this.

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Yes, i also think that's exactly right, LG doesn't want the license because they think that now days evrything works with html5 but they are "out of mind" because 50% or more of internet is still using Flash player. HTML5 is just another innovation that only big company's webpages is using. I recommend lg to know about the word outside of sales and business. There is something named satisfaction. I wish that WebOS 2.0 will be available for my TV 42LB650V, and i hope it's lot better than the current OS ver. and doesn't have the "out of memory" error...

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I want flash plugin in web browser too in my LG TV .... but I am not a programmer....

I have also LG G2 mini phone ..... that has the same limitation with flash plugin in web browser .... and I bypass only with application on "google play" called "FlashFox" web browser .... and flash videos on the web is running very good ...

And I found the solution is only find programmer who will make new application web browser with flash plugin "integrated" like FlashFox for WebOS even to put an option for multiple video codecs to install.... I am willing to pay for such application up to 25$ .....

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I also have a lg g2 mini and the thing is that no android phone has flash player, and lg's g2 mini is an android phone, it's not lg's fault, for your android, you can search and download "flash player android 4.4.apk" and install, this for the phone, and for the tv, there's no solution yet. You have to contact adobe to make a flashplayer for the lg WebOS TV

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You cannot install flash player apk ..... it will not play flash videos on phone.... FlashFox app for android works very good, it does not need flash player instalation at all ..... and you can watch flash video on web sites on lg mini .... if you dont believe me install it and check it out ....

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Does anyone know a webOS programmer, because we all can cooperate and give some money to the programmer to make a web browser with integrated flashplayer and that does not have "out of memory" error, i think it's a good idea.

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Oh, well thanks, you could help us by creating a web browser with flashplayer preinstalled and that never has memory out error, the normal web browser has memory out error because it doesn't refresh memory as the youtube app that does and never has that problem, you could create one from beggining or you can use the open source firefox, i'd recommend you the firefox. And don't forget to also install the adblock. And give us your payment info, or if you want, you can make it free and just display your ads on the web browser for example, that's all, thank you very much and i hope you reply soon.

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someone had asked about this issue to Adobe and bellow is their replied:

Adobe is all about enabling designers and developers to create the most expressive content possible, regardless of platform or technology. For more than a decade, Flash has enabled the richest content to be created and deployed on the web by reaching beyond what browsers could do. It has repeatedly served as a blueprint for standardizing new technologies in HTML. Over the past two years, we’ve delivered Flash Player for mobile browsers and brought the full expressiveness of the web to many mobile devices.

However, HTML5 is now universally supported on major mobile devices, in some cases exclusively. This makes HTML5 the best solution for creating and deploying content in the browser across mobile platforms. We are excited about this, and will continue our work with key players in the HTML community, including Google, Apple, Microsoft and RIM, to drive HTML5 innovation they can use to advance their mobile browsers.

Our future work with Flash on mobile devices will be focused on enabling Flash developers to package native apps with Adobe AIR for all the major app stores. We will no longer continue to develop Flash Player in the browser to work with new mobile device configurations (chipset, browser, OS version, etc.) following the upcoming release of Flash Player 11.1 for Android and BlackBerry PlayBook. We will of course continue to provide critical bug fixes and security updates for existing device configurations. We will also allow our source code licensees to continue working on and release their own implementations.

These changes will allow us to increase investment in HTML5 and innovate with Flash where it can have most impact for the industry, including advanced gaming and premium video. Flash Player 11 for PC browsers just introduced dozens of new features, including hardware accelerated 3D graphics for console-quality gaming and premium HD video with content protection. Flash developers can take advantage of these features, and all that our Flash tooling has to offer, to reach more than a billion PCs through their browsers and to package native apps with AIR that run on hundreds of millions of mobile devices through all the popular app stores, including the iTunes App Store, Android Market, Amazon Appstore for Android and BlackBerry App World.

We are already working on Flash Player 12 and a new round of exciting features which we expect to again advance what is possible for delivering high definition entertainment experiences. We will continue to leverage our experience with Flash to accelerate our work with the W3C and WebKit to bring similar capabilities to HTML5 as quickly as possible, just as we have done with CSS Shaders. And, we will design new features in Flash for a smooth transition to HTML5 as the standards evolve so developers can confidently invest knowing their skills will continue to be leveraged.

We are super excited about the next generations of HTML5 and Flash. Together they offer developers and content publishers great options for delivering compelling web and application experiences across PCs and devices. There is already amazing work being done that is pushing the newest boundaries, and we can’t wait to see what is still yet to come!

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i purchased LG SMART TV 42UB820T-TH in the market and i update 04.02.01 web Os .i use internet browser i have issue in flash player. in my suggestion is almost of the browsers using in flash player and sum TVs like samsung ,toshiba , Sony they all have adobe some company introduces android as well so marketing strategy not improve with your advertisement its improve user friendly why the people like use smart TVs they have everything use at ones please do it something to adobe in your webOS

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For me this whole smartshare/flashp[ayer/screenshare b.s. is just a huge disappointment. I've spent the better of a week trying to set this all up, and all I can get to work is smartshare using downloaded lg software to my computer. Forget screenshare, that doeesn't work at all.

Frankly I was shocked when I learned it was not possible to download flashplayer to this set! The way this set was advertised they made it sound like you can STREAM LIVE shows from home computer to tv WIRELESLY. The fact is that you can't unless you use windows 10 and a hdmi cable from computer to tv. I had hoped to watch hbogo wirelesly with my new 49uf6430.

WIRELESSLY.................... LIKE IT IMPLIES IN LG'S PRODUCT DESCRIPTION!